If literary critic Stanley Fish deconstructed anything, one might expect him to deconstruct Christianity. Instead Fish uses his unquestioned rhetoric skills to deconstruct atheism. Fish takes up the argument, advanced by Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, that belief in God is a kind of evasion. We avoid the responsibilities of this life by putting our hopes in another life. Religion makes us do crazy things.
Fish takes as an example of the Harris-Hitchens-Dawkins critique the behavior of Christian in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. Christian becomes aware that he is carrying a huge burden on his back (Original Sin) and he wants to get rid of it. Another fellow named Evangelist tells him to "flee the wrath to come." Evangelist points Christian in the direction of a shining light. But Christian can't clearly see the light. Still, he begins to run in that direction. Bunyan describes his wife and children who "began to cry after him to return, but the man put his fingers in his ears and ran on, crying Life! Life! Eternal Life!"
For Harris, Hitchens and Dawkins, this is precisely the kind of crazy behavior that religion produces. Here is a man abandoning his duties and chasing after something he isn't even sure about. Fish writes, "I have imagined this criticism coming from outside the narrative, but in fact it is right there on the inside." Bunyan not only has Christian's wife and children imploring him to return, he also has Christian's friends struggling to make sense of his actions.
Fish comments, "What this shows is that the objections Harris, Dawkins and Hitchens make to religious thinking are themselves part of religious thinking. Rather than being swept under the rug of a seamless discourse, they are the very motor of that discourse." Citing the atheists' portrait of religion as unquestioning obedienece, Fish writes, "I know of no religious framework that offers such a complacement picture of the life of faith, a life that is always presented as a minefield of difficulties, obstacles and temptations that must be negotiated by a limited creature in the effort to become aligned with the Infinite."
Fish's conclusion: while religious people over the centuries have dug deeply into the questions of life, along come our shallow atheists who present arguments as if they first thought of them, arguments that Christians have long examined with a seriousness and care that is missing in contemporary atheist discourse. We can expect our unbelieving trio to react with their trademark scorn, but Fish has scored a telling point.
Reader Comments ( Page 4 of 17)
46. It's not about religion, it about what God's word says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God". Trust God's Son, Jesus Christ as you Savior today. You'll be glad you did! :-)
Vivian at 8:50PM on Jun 28th 2007
47. Atheism is just another form of religion
J:D at 6:43PM on Jun 27th 2007
48. We will all find out the truth when we die and end up ????????
Rosemary McGilvray at 6:45PM on Jun 27th 2007
49. I tried talking to my dog and got no answer in English,so I tried French then Spanish still no answer we both looked at each other with blankness.So where does one species say it understands the other or that it is in some way superior in intelligence or mortality. Any rational thought must conclude that as neither understands their language they must foreever live in their universe ....now try talking to God and wait for an answer....pick any answer you like ,that will be what God said ,of course it will be different for me, unless you tell me what he told you but then how do I know that he really spoke to you...I think that I will give the dog another try...this time I will let him bark and ..well you know the rest.
Kevin at 7:51PM on Jun 27th 2007
50. This is not a compelling theological argument about the existence of God. It is a rather namby pamby point justifying religion which,in the case of fundamentalism, is more a social agenda using a patriarchal thundering Jehovah to threaten hell to those who don't toe the line. Jesus don't live there,pilgrim
Doles at 7:26AM on Jun 28th 2007
51. "Atheism is just another form of religion"
Just like health is another form of disease.
Knight_of_BAAWA at 7:08PM on Jun 27th 2007
52. I will believe as I want & I beleive in God almighty
and in Jesus christ and the holy spirit. If other people do not, thats to bad,its their right. My self I came throught w.w.2 & korean war AND I beleive that christ was there when I needed him
so i wiil keep on in my way and pray for thoes who
dont.
kenneth spidle at 1:18PM on Jun 28th 2007
53.
Atheists don't care if you believe in God as long a you MYOB and not shove your religion down other peoples throats.
That means recognizing this is a secular country. Keep your religion out of the public square and in the church where it belongs.
You want to believe the earth is only 6,000 years old? That the earth is flat? Some sort of wing ding ID theory? Go ahead. Just don't dumb down the schools with such religious nonsense. We have to compete in the 21st century, and that means 21st century science, ie evolution.
And please if you are a creationist, don't be hypocrite. You must refuse all modern medicine since you don't believe in Darwin's theories, which are the basis for many of our cures.
cdnbirch at 7:25PM on Jun 27th 2007
54. Well, having read most of these posts (that was a job - whew!), for me, I think it best to simply listen to Rome and try to follow Christ.
; )
Ken Berg at 7:25PM on Jun 27th 2007
55. anyone want to buy my book-----------------------------Navigating the Sea of Talmud----at www.xlibris.com-thought i would interject with an irrelevant thought
Steven Joseph at 7:30PM on Jun 27th 2007
56. I am getting so sick and tired of people looking at Christians as wackos who follow and obey something like a dog follows and obeys his owner. We don't! Besides Christ, the greatest gift that God gave us was free will. Which is why people who are athiest can be athiest. As a Christian I can do what I want whenever I want to do it, but because I have Christ in my heart I have more conviction to do the right thing rather than the wrong. See, Jesus when he returned, gave all who belived in Him the gift of the Holy Spirit this gave us a spiritual closeness with Him and it gave us the power of conviction of ourselves. That does not exactly mean that when a Christian goes out side his or her house he or she always does the right thing, but it does mean that he or she will be fogiven by God.
The athiest think we are crazy when we fast food and live in prayer for something that we feel God has placed on our hearts to pray and fast for, but how can they explain when or prayers have been answered? Or why despite that fact that most of us live moderate mediocre lives we are still happy? Well, that is all because our FAITH in God shows us where true happiness lies: in family, friends, and knowing that if we were to stumbble and fall that God will be there to pick us up just like our parents did when we fell down.
Believeing in God does not make you a robot that follows commands it makes you a person who has something more live for than fancy cars, big houses, people, or money being a Christian you get the choice to believe through faith that God not only lives, but live inside you, and when God lives inside you that is why you as a true Christian CHOOSE to live you life as Chirst did when He was walking the earth.
Hey if I die tomorrow and find that there is no God I lived my life right and I have no regrets, but if you were to die tomorrow and you discoved there was a God...well, lets just say I would not at all want to be you!
Katie at 7:51PM on Jun 27th 2007
57. I think religions around the world are all running basically parallel and heading toward the same point. Their differences are remarkable as they all bear the mark of their people and the culture in which they developed. And religions get lost along the way as they get mired down in laws and rules and debating about the meaning of 3 words here and there, when to stone your neighbor, which hand to wipe your arse with... And it's all worldly nonsense which gives followers something to exercise and hold sacred, keeps them in the flock, tithing, and not seeking or asking difficult questions.
Beyond being too worldly, I think religion also tends to separate man from nature. Technology also separates man from nature. People admire million dollar war planes, but they are crude machines compared to the birds of prey which they were designed after. People lust after trinkets and toys while they abort fetuses or send their kids to be raised by strangers at day care.
There may not be a kingdom in the heavens or a white haired old man in the sky; but even if we only evolved from a puddle of goo, an unbroken and evolving chain of creatures going back infinitely in time, wouldn't that be a miracle? Having evolved this far, imagine what humans will be capable of in a million years!? (all you liberals might be able to have same sex marriages and interspecies marriages by then!, or you could colonize your own pristine planet where you could all fight amongst yourselves about who's greenest and who flushes too often)
Einstein was actually aware of something far greater than even he was capable of comprehending.
Thank God he didn't grow up today; he'd be a brainwashed, metrosexual, guyliner wearing, know it all liberal a55hole wearing a Che tee shirt and writing brilliant drivel for the New Yorker and happy to vote for Hillary only because Hitler, Napoleon, Stalin, Che and Mao are all dead!
Mike at 8:11AM on Jun 28th 2007
58. I know it's a ways back, but a phrase from #6 struck me: "Atheists grapple with philosophical struggles just as much as atheists - and in many ways, we are able to transcend the limits of theist philosophy, since there is no upper-limit to our ability to question and analyze life and reality."
Um.... Christianity doesn't instruct its followers (nor, I belive, do either Judaism or Islam) to stop using our ability to question and analyze life and reality. If anything, it should be empowering to believe that there is no "upper limit" like you might if you believe humans and this entire planet came about as one giant mistake (followed by another series of pure "mistakes").
I think that original poster of this comment, and many atheists, like to point to a few very fundamentalist Christians who appear to "do as they are told" without questioning their beliefs or religious leaders. Christianity was not intended to be treated this way. Last time I checked, there was a verse that said "seek and you shall find" -- not, "do not question and you shall be blessed." From my experience, "seeking" involves a LOT more than blind belief.
And I think that's what the original blog is pointing out. Devotion should not be synonymous with simplicity, just as perseverance should not be synonymous with empty bull-headedness. Perhaps some Christians make it out to be empty pursuit of religious dogma-- I don't deny that. However, for atheists to point to any people with devotion to a God as crazy as more "proof" of no such God reveals their lack of understanding (intentional or not) of what faith truly is.
eM at 7:18AM on Jun 28th 2007
59. " I am getting so sick and tired of people looking at Christians as wackos who follow and obey something like a dog follows and obeys his owner."
Then stop being a dog that just follows its owner.
"We don't!"
You do.
"Besides Christ, the greatest gift that God gave us was free will."
Not possible, given that your god is omniscient and created everything. Free will cannot hold with that combo.
"Which is why people who are athiest"
a-t-h-E-I-s-t.
"can be athiest. As a Christian I can do what I want whenever I want to do it, but because I have Christ in my heart "
That's probably why you're stupid: you have a heart-blockage. Not getting enough oxygen to your brain.
"I have more conviction to do the right thing rather than the wrong."
Oh, so only christians can be moral. Great: you've just insulted over 2/3 of the world's population. Good going!
" See, Jesus when he returned, gave all who belived in Him the gift of the Holy Spirit this gave us a spiritual closeness with Him and it gave us the power of conviction of ourselves."
Capitalizing some Words does Not give Them more Truth power Than others, You do Understand that, Right?
"That does not exactly mean that when a Christian goes out side his or her house he or she always does the right thing, but it does mean that he or she will be fogiven by God."
Well isn't that just special.
"The athiest think we are crazy when we fast food and live in prayer for something that we feel God has placed on our hearts to pray and fast for,"
Yes.
"but how can they explain when or prayers have been answered? "
How can you explain all the times they haven't? You can't count the hits and ignore the misses, and you can't chalk it up to god saying no. Whatever you ask for in the name of god/jesus, you shall receive. That is what the bible says.
"Or why despite that fact that most of us live moderate mediocre lives we are still happy?"
And atheists aren't?
"Well, that is all because our FAITH in God shows us where true happiness lies: in family, friends, and knowing that if we were to stumbble and fall that God will be there to pick us up just like our parents did when we fell down."
So you're just transferring parental control to some magic space pixie. Great. You've never grown up.
"Believeing in God does not make you a robot that follows commands"
Yeah, it actually does.
" it makes you a person who has something more live for than fancy cars, big houses, people, or money being a Christian you get the choice to believe through faith that God not only lives,"
Apparently, being a christian means that you know nothing of run-on sentences.
"Hey if I die tomorrow"
And find out that there is a god, but it's not the one you believe in, you're screwed.
Don't think that you're the first person to ever come up with Pascal's Utterly Refuted To Death Wager. You're not.
Knight_of_BAAWA at 8:18PM on Jun 27th 2007
60. David Skocik-- You have stated your position very eloquently. It amazes me that many folks will accept a scientific view--as long as it agrees with their beliefs--so readily, but have a hard time acknowledging that Jesus even existed.
So what.. let them believe (or disbelieve) whatever they wish. They obviously have motives that aren't being fully revealed. And if you notice their criticisms are reflective of organized religion or select fundamental views. I find no observations of "Mother Theresa" type Christians or typical sincere Christians that only want a better life for themselves and those they aid.
So folks go ahead and cry because it says "In God We Trust" on bill. Or the 10 Commandments hanging in a justice's chamber...
And remember, yes Christianity as well as many other religions are "responsible" for the death of millions--but so are atheists. Mr. Stalin comes to mind. As well as Genghis Khan et al. And because someone says they're Christian doesn't make them so. Man will seize any opportunity to include--and especially--religion to promote their own interests.
mailman12_2000 at 9:02PM on Jun 27th 2007